Reported by Ansa News on Thursday, January 19, 2007, Italian scholar Giuseppe Pallatini believes he has found where the real
Mona Lisa is buried, and he claims to know the exact current location. Mona Lisa's real
identity, Lisa Gherardini, is practically a household name, familiar to art lovers all over the world as the model for the famous
painting by High Renaissance master Leonardo
da Vinci probably painted in 1503-05.

Pallatini bases his claim for the real Mona Lisa's current whereabouts on old Florentine archive documents. Pallatini believes she was
buried in the convent of Sant'Orsola, a site which is now deserted and run down in the thriving hub of modern day Florence. Pallatini puts Mona
Lisa's death in the year 1542 at the age of 63. Lisa Gherardini was the wife of a prominent Florentine merchant named Giocondo, and it was common
for the wealthy to end their days in a convent or monastery in exchange for a substantial donation to the church. Pallatini claims that his study
finally proves the real existence of the woman Mona Lisa. The current location for da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting is in the
Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Brenda Harness, Art Historian

QUOTE
OF THE
WEEK

"Practise what you know, and it
will help to make clear what
now you do not
know."